SC declines urgent hearing of plea seeking policy for propagating national anthem

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear the plea seeking direction for framing of policy for propagating national anthem.

"The matter related to National Anthem is an important issue and thereby the apex court should hear the matter on an urgent manner," Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay told ANI.

A fresh PIL seeking direction to the Central government to frame a national policy to promote and propagate the national anthem, national song and national flag was filed in the Supreme Court today.

"There is only one nationality i.e., Indian, one national anthem i.e., Jana Gana Mana, one national song i.e., Vande Mataram and one national flag i.e., Triranga, and it is duty of every Indian to respect these symbols," the petition stated.

It said fundamental rights, directives and fundamental duties are supplementary and complimentary, and the great golden goals as set out in the Preamble of the Constitution cannot be achieved without implementing them in letter and spirit.

The petition sought a direction to frame a national policy to promote and propagate the national anthem, national song and national flag in spirit of the Article 51A to achieve the great golden goals.

On November 30, a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra, in a separate plea, had ordered all cinema halls to play the national anthem before the screening of a movie.